page last updated 10-17-2016

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About IF

IF is a nonprofit humanitarian, educational and social change organization located in the Santa Cruz, CA, area. We are a community of friends seeking hopeful alternatives to the violence, greed and destructiveness of our world. Read more about IF's history and mission

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﻿Mexico:Mediating the Teachers’ Strike, Nurturing the Next Generation of Nonviolence ActivistsUpdate from Pietro Ameglio

IF continues to support the courageous work of Pietro Ameglio in Mexico and beyond.IF's support has been integral to Pietro being able to devote himself full-time to nonviolence education and organizing. Pietro is one of the most important nonviolent activists in Latin America today in the specific sense of promoting both the study and the practice of active nonviolence. He has a sophisticated knowledge of nonviolence theory and history, and he combines that with a deep commitment to social justice and decades of front-line experience in nonviolent action. He is an inspiring and popular peace educator who walks his talk, who educates in formal settings as well as on picket lines and at mass actions. Here is his most recent update.

October 2, 2016Gandhi’s Birthday and International Day of Nonviolence

Dear friends of IF, I am very glad to be able to share with you once again something about this path we are on together that unites us and also challenges us. It has been about six months since I last wrote and I wanted to tell you about a couple of things that the good spirit of life has placed in our path. But before I do that, I must take note of a huge global challenge that is now in your hands. Your presidential election at the beginning of November will have enormous and serious consequences, perhaps more than ever before, for you, your country and the entire world. So I suppose that you must be very attentive and involved, in whatever ways are appropriate, in that very polarized process. 1. The first experience that I want to tell you about is our involvement in the conflict between the government and the teachers’ union here in Mexico. Our small but real work for peace and nonviolence in Mexico has been energized by a very large challenge that we did not expect but to which we had to say ‘yes’. Teachers across Mexico who are organized in the Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE, National Educational Workers Union) are strongly opposed to the educational reform passed during the administration of President Peña Nieto. (Editor’s note: The educational reform was passed early in Peña Nieto’s term, with little public discussion. Among the objections of the teachers union are provisions that they see as a move to begin to privatize public education and a teacher evaluation system that they feel will harm the quality of public education, especially in rural areas.) The CNTE asked eight people whom they trust, including myself, to form a mediation body between the government and the union in order to find a peaceful and legal resolution of the conflict. This is the largest social conflict in Mexico during Peña Nieto’s term. There have been millions of children left without classes because the national teachers strike that began on May 15 and was suspended in the middle of September. Major highways in different parts of the country have been blocked for weeks by rural communities who support the teachers. The government brutally repressed one of those blockades in Nochixtlán, Oaxaca on June 19, killing 8 people and wounding over 100. Thousands of teachers across the country were fired by the government. In summary, a real war, in some moments characterized by nonviolent direct actions, in others by legal sanctions imposed by the government, in others by armed actions.

In the absence of the possibility of direct talks between the parties, after so much aggression and mutual distrust, it was necessary to create the National Mediation Commission, of which I am a member. The work has been very hard, essentially full time, and low profile in order to avoid the risk of making public statements that might contribute to the polarization. Crucially the teachers have taken the perspective of the mediation commission into account and listened to our reflections regarding the different moments of the unfolding struggle, reflections that have always been aimed at prioritizing nonviolence and dialogue and overcoming the hatreds between the parties. We have talked with them a lot about nonviolent​civil resistance actions. The government has also listened to us.

Pietro Ameglio

Our role has not been decisive, but I do humbly believe that we have offered important elements that have contributed to reducing the violence of the conflict and setting a path rooted more in active nonviolence.​ After three months an initial agreement was reached for the schools to re-open and for the fired

teachers to be reinstated while talks proceed on the substantive issues. The schools have now re-opened, and we are now in the stage of assuring the implementation of the initial agreement by the government. It is not easy, but there is real hope, and the government now knows that a significant part of the society is backing the teachers and is ready to undertake civil disobedience actions if the agreements are not fulfilled. From the point of view of nonviolence, one lesson from this experience is the importance of securing and maintaining the trust of the parties in conflict, something that is very difficult in Mexico, with its history of so many betrayals and state-sponsored violence. Another reflection is the importance of not “over-stretching the cord” of civil resistance in order to avoid a rupture and the further polarization of the conflict. That is, to know when it is time to conclude one phase of struggle (highway blockades and closing of businesses, government offices, schools), despite the fear that the adversary will not fulfill his/her commitments, but in recognition of the risk of putting the adversary in a deadend street in which he/she feels obliged by public opinion to repress those actions. Both sides need a dignified public way out of the conflict, in which no one appears to have been defeated. 2. I am very happy to tell you that the work of developing new nonviolence educators and expanding nonviolence education and organizing through them is going well, in particular with the Peace and Nonviolence Team of the School of Philosophy and Literature of the UNAM (National Autonomous University, the largest university in Mexico). As I have noted before, I have prioritized this work in recent years because I am convinced that it is key to develop youth educators, with strong roots in theoretical reflection and in practice, who will carry on and surpass our work in peace and nonviolence. As our mentor Fr. Donald Hessler used to say, ‘the children must be better than their parents, the students better than their teachers.’ They are my teachers in many respects, and without their pushing, their energy and the challenges they present, my work would be even more poor. New students are becoming part of this work, many of whom come from the workshops and seminars at the university, which for me is central. I have also received invitations to give workshops in many different places, from small communities to massive public events. During this month of October, there will be two weeks of daily workshops on nonviolence offered as part of the International Book Fair in the Zócalo in Mexico City. This is a major national event, and it will be quite a challenge to involve large numbers of visitors in these themes. The youth collective has created a workshop series that covers issues of nonviolence and peace in relation to managing fear, machista language, discrimination, the environment, social stigmas, health, meditation, nonviolent direct action, etc. (Note: See Integrities, Vol. 29, No. 2, 2016 for an article by the Peace and Nonviolence Team on their work) Well, I hope I have not tired you with all of this, but it seemed like a good moment, before the end of the year activities leave us no time to breathe, to share a bit of the riches and challenges that we are facing, while also being mindful of the challenges of your upcoming elections.

Anita, a nurse, works with Don Sergio. She has 3 children and has not been paid at her hospital job for 6 months. Photo courtesy of Patricia Ferrer

Updates on Sergio Castro/Yok Chij For over 45 years Sergio Castro (Yok Chij) has been working within the indigenous Mayan communities of San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas, one of the poorest states of Mexico. Sergio spends most of his time providing medical and wound care to burn victims, and, with increasing frequency, patients suffering from the effects of type 2 diabetic complications. Don Sergio does not charge any fees. He is a “one-man-wound-care clinic” and is always moving, hence the name ‘yok chij’, Maya language, Tzotzil for ‘deer foot’, because he’s always moving. Don Sergio's project activities are regularly updated on his blog by Patricia Ferrer, who has worked with him for eight years, @ http://sergiocastrosc.blogspot.mx

Summer 2016(updates from Patricia Ferrer on Sergio's blog). We had been aware of the recent protesting and violence in Oaxaca and although we did not see any protesting, we definitely experienced the effects. Teachers and health professionals (to my understanding have not been paid) create road blocks which prevent certain items to come in and out of the city. Tourism numbers are low and gasoline is limited. The lines at gas stations are long and they run out quickly. We cannot go out to the communities so we only treat the local patients....keeps us busy enough! As usual, he is grateful to all his friends that continue to support him and his work. The never-ending influx of patients with burns and wounds seems endless and all donations help reduce the suffering in this part of the world. At this time we have a 2 and a half-year-old that was pushed into a tub of hot water by her brother, which burned her back, legs and genitalia. These are first-degree burns (epidermal blisters) and superficial second-degree burns (the superficial portion of the dermis). These types of burns are so painful and although the little girl cries when we change her bandages, she lets us do our job. We do it as quickly and smoothly as possible.

30% of her body surface area was burned, 1st and superficial 2nd degree burns. Photo courtesy of Patricia Ferrer.

The poverty she, her family and neighbors live in astounds us:no clean water, no toilets, they cook with wood, the walls are thin planks, and discarded items are used in any way possible for shelter. There is no waste for the poor; they find utility in everything, just as nature does. read more about Don Sergio's work in Chiapas, Mexico

January 2016

Sergio must travel long distance to serve patients in isolated towns and villages in Chiapas.
Photo courtesy of Patricia Ferrer

"Its hard to believe I met Sergio 8 years ago and how little things have changed in his world of wound and burn care. At least as far as patients go: same accidents, different people. Our patients are the young, the old, and everyone in between.

On New Year's Eve a 5 year-old boy, with his 23 year-old uncle from Chamula, were planning to use fireworks and pulvora - literally in English 'gunpowder' - and somehow it when 'boom'. Both their hands and faces were burned. The boy's complete face (excluding his eyelids) has a superficial second degree burn and he looks like a kid from a horror movie. The back of his hands suffered a 1st degree burn in which the superficial aspect of his skin will peel and probably won't leave any scarring. At this point we really don't if he will be left with any facial disfigurement, but his function of blinking, and use of his mouth should be fine. Sergio cleans his face and applies cream and this 5 year-old does not cry. His absolute attention and caring in doing this must have some calming affect...plus the boy knows Sergio will give him a piece of chocolate afterwards. The uncle does the whimpering when we change the bandage on his right hand which has a superficial 2nd degree burn. His face suffered a burn equivalent to a chemical peel that many women in the US pay hundreds of dollars to help with wrinkles. His face is recovering very quickly but his hand will take longer. The older patients have diabetic or venous ulcers we see on a regular basis. The blindness from diabetes continues to amaze me and lack of education for diabetes prevention is sorely lacking (as it is in the US). It also continues to amaze me how people get along with their maladies that interfere with their daily activities of living and their quality of life. They seem to blame no one and accept their fate. Read more on Sergio's blog.